Hawaii (Kauai) Vacation, 2016

Hawaii Vacation (Kauai) 20-28 May 2016

This video shows scenery from a vacation in Hawaii, on the Island of Kauai, in May 2016.

Video Duration: 25 minutes.

0:05 Kee Beach, seen from the Kalalau trail; the Napali coast.
2:10 Poipu Beach Hotel (re-built. Now it is the “Ko’a Kia Hotel and Resort at Poipu Beach”)
3:30 Hawaiian Monk seal enjoys the beach
5:00 Tour of Wailua Bay View (inside)
12:00 Tour of Wailua Bay View (exterior & Beach)
14:40 Coco Palms (damaged by Hurricane Iniki, Sept 1992)
16:10 Wailua Beach
18:00 Lydgate Park, Beach, Lagoon, and Playground
24:20 Wildlife ? A Gecko? Really?

It was our 5th time on Kauai and the 4th time at the Wailua Bay View Condos. We stayed in unit 213, which has an excellent view of the ocean, and still great views of the surrounding mountains. As with the other units, it is basically a 1-bedroom apartment, with a king-size bed, kitchen, living room, and lanai. It also has TV, DVD player, cable, and wi-fi.

We had just spent a week on the Big Island of Hawaii, for a week with the biking group, Backroads. For details on that trip, see this video.
https://vimeo.com/169187368 Hawaii, Backroads Trip, May 2016
After that busy vacation week, we felt ready for a more relaxing time on Kauai.

In contrast to other visits to Kauai, we did little touring.
One day we went to the north end of the island and briefly hiked the Kalalau trail. Unfortunately, it was raining off and on. The trail was muddy and slippery, and we had a misty, hazy view of the Napali coast.

On another day, we traveled to the south part of the island, to Poipu Beach. We enjoyed the beach, the snorkeling and the scenery.

A surprise sight was a monk seal who decided to spend the day at Poipu Beach. The seal decided to haul itself up on the beach, close to the rocky area, and rest for the day. Apparently, a lifeguard reported the incident, and a wildlife specialist went on location, posting a few signs around the seal, not to disturb it. And the wildlife specialist spent the day, supervising — so that the seal was not disturbed. Lora noticed how once a big wave splashed up against the seal, and it momentarily woke up, looked around, then went back asleep.

An unwelcome sight at Poipu Beach was a shark that decided to come very close, right where the waves were breaking at the shore. I guess it was “just” a baby shark — it looked to me to be perhaps 4 feet long. But still, a bunch of stunned people gathered around when the shark was seen. There were still a number of snorkelers close by and other snorkelers out, in far deeper water, while this unwelcome visitor was in the area.

The rest of the week, we decided to relax, and spend time mainly close to our condo. We went swimming and snorkeling at the protected lagoon at Lydgate Park. And we strolled along the nearby Wailua beach.

On previous years, we had seen lots of sights throughout the island. We took a helicopter tour back in 1987. In 1994, 1996, and 2004 we had taken trips to visit many of the beaches, we hiked a number of the trails, and we saw several scenic waterfalls on the island. For some of those sights, see these videos.
Hawaii Vacation, 1996, part 1, (Kauai) https://vimeo.com/138927067

Hawaii Vacation, 1996, part 2, (Kauai) https://vimeo.com/138942929

Snorkeling at Lydgate Lagoon.
This is a very tame location. Due to the large boulders that surround the lagoon, there is very little turbulence from the ocean waves. Surprisingly, there are a number of fish to view inside the lagoon. To enhance the experience of snorkeling, it can be fun to “feed the fish.”
After having no success finding any official “fish food” for snorkelers, we heard that “bread” is a suitable fish food.
We decided to try some things from our remaining stock of food. We brought samples of breakfast cereals in small snack size ziplock bags, and got ENTHUSIASTIC responses from the fish. Shredded wheat, broken up, stayed intact long enough, even when wet, and soon Lora had schools of large colorful fish circling around her, as she released small amounts of the cereal at a time.

Wheat Chex was a little more problematic, such that if got wet for very long, it turned to mush. For Wheat Chex, it worked better to keep it dry in the ziplock bag (with one hand, above the surface of the water) and then take one cereal piece out at a time, take it under water, crush it, and release it in front of the fish. Then the fish would attack the pieces, and compete for each morsel.
Less useful was “Puffins” — that cereal “floats” — so even when introducing one piece at a time, it often floated to the surface before the fish could get it. And the Lydgate Park fish were not so adept at eating the pieces from the surface of the water.

“Feeding the fish” is a good time both for the snorkeler and the fish.

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